This vegan moussaka is deliciously layered with roasted eggplant, homemade vegan mince and a creamy vegan bechamel sauce. Ultimate comfort food.
Vegan moussaka is like a lower carb version of a vegan shepherd’s pie.
Instead of mashed potatoes on the top you have bechamel sauce.
It’s also a little like lasagna in that you have layers. It starts off with a layer of roasted eggplant and then you have a layer of homemade vegan mince, then more eggplant, and it’s topped off with a thick layer of bechamel sauce.
It then bakes to perfection in the oven and you have some serious comfort food on your hands.
It’s seriously satisfying and high in protein too.
It does take a while to make, I have to tell you. It’s probably not going to go onto the regular weekly dinner rotation, but for a special occasion it’s the best.
And if you love this recipe, you’ll most likely also love our vegan baked ziti and our vegan eggplant parmesan too.
Moussaka
There are quite a few moving parts to this recipe, which means lots of photo collages! But bear with me.
Here’s just a quick look at the components of your moussaka.
- Roasted Eggplant
- Vegan Mince
- Vegan Bechamel Sauce
This gets layered in a rectangular dish and baked to perfection.
How To Make Vegan Moussaka
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Press The Tofu
- Start off by putting on some tofu to press. It’s ideal if you use a tofu press, but if you don’t have one you can place the block of tofu on a plate with another plate on top of it and then place something heavy on top of that, like a heavy pot or stack of books. Leave it to press for 20 minutes.
Roast The Eggplant
- While the tofu is pressing, slice your eggplant into round slices about ¼ inch thick and place them on parchment lined baking sheets (we used two half sheet trays).
- Brush the eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
- Place into the oven and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, turning the eggplant over at the halfway mark.
Vegan Mince
- Add walnuts to the food processor and process into crumbles. Add to a mixing bowl.
- Add sliced mushrooms to the food processor and process until finely chopped. Add to the mixing bowl with the walnuts.
- When the tofu is pressed, mash it with a fork and add it to the mixing bowl.
- Now add lentils to the mixing bowl and toss everything together.
- Add olive oil, chopped onion, finely chopped celery and red bell pepper to a pot and sauté until softened.
- Add crushed garlic, paprika, cumin, oregano, rosemary and cinnamon. Yes, that’s not a typo, we used a little cinnamon! It’s a typical flavor add for moussaka, and in small quantity tastes great here!
- Sauté briefly to toast the spices.
- Add the walnut, mushroom, tofu and lentil mix and toss together with the vegetables and spices.
- Add tomato paste, marinara sauce and soy sauce and fry for about 8 minutes until you have cooked off any excess liquid and have a delicious soft mince texture.
- Add coconut sugar (for flavor balance), ground black pepper and sea salt to taste.
Vegan Bechamel Sauce
- When your eggplant is deliciously baked and your veggie mince is ready to go, now you have to make your vegan white sauce – bechamel.
- You need to focus all your attention on this while you’re making it, but once you get the hang of it, it’s really easy.
- Add olive oil to a pot and heat it. Then add flour and fry it in the oil for a minute, then add in soy milk and stir like mad (have a whisk handy as well so you can alternate between stirring and whisking) until well combined.
- Heat it, stirring all the while until it reaches a rolling boil and then let it boil while you continue stirring until it thickens. You ideally want it very thick for this since you need it to be a fairly firm topping for your moussaka, not a super runny sauce. When it’s nicely thickened, add black pepper and salt to taste.
Layer the Moussaka
- Start off with a layer of roasted eggplant.
- Then add all the veggie mince on top of that.
- Add the rest of the eggplant on top of the veggie mince, and top it all off with all the white sauce.
- Smooth down and then place into the oven to bake for 40 minutes at 350°F, switching to grill for the last 5 minutes so that it can brown a little more on top.
- Let it cool for a bit before serving.
Chef’s Tips
Your vegan mince needs to be thick. So cook off any excess liquid so that it’s a nice thick mince.
Your bechamel sauce also needs to be thick. This can take a while, especially since it’s a lot of sauce.
If you’re having trouble with your bechamel sauce thickening and it’s taking just too long and not seeming to thicken, then you can add a little more flour. Mix a tablespoon of flour with some water into a paste and then whisk it into the white sauce.
Storing and Freezing
Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for around 4-5 days and can be reheated at your leisure.
This vegan moussaka is freezer friendly for up to 3 months too! Let it cool completely before freezing. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then reheat in the oven at 350°F until heated through.
More Delicious Vegan Dinners
- Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
- The Best Vegan Lasagna
- Baked Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Pasta Bake
- Vegan Cannelloni
- Vegan Stuffed Shells
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Moussaka
Ingredients
For the Eggplant:
- 2 Large Eggplants (1.3 pounds/600g) Sliced
- Olive Oil For Brushing
- Sprinkle Salt and Pepper
For the Vegan Mince:
- 8 ounces Extra Firm Tofu (226g) Pressed
- 1 cup Walnuts (100g) Finely Chopped
- 2 ½ cups Cremini Mushrooms (240g) Finely Chopped
- 15 ounce Can Brown Lentils Drained, or 1 and ½ cups cooked lentils
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Medium Onion White, Yellow or Brown, Finely Chopped
- 2 Medium Stalks Celery Finely Chopped
- 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper Finely Chopped
- 1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Dried Rosemary
- ⅛ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ cup Tomato Paste (130g)
- 1 cup Marinara Sauce (240ml)
- 1 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Coconut Sugar
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- Salt To Taste
For the Bechamel Sauce:
For Decoration (Optional):
- Dried Oregano
- Paprika
- Ground Black Pepper
- Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
Instructions
Press the tofu:
- Start off by putting your tofu on to press. If you have a tofu press, then this is perfect to use, but if not, you can place the block of tofu on a plate, with another plate on top of it and then place something heavy on top of that, like a heavy pot or a heavy stack of books. Let it press for 20 minutes.
Roast the Eggplant:
- While the tofu is pressing, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Slice the eggplant into round slices about ¼ inch thick and place them onto parchment lined baking sheets (we used two half sheet trays).
- Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
- Place the eggplant into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, turning them over at the halfway mark.
Prepare the Vegan Mince:
- Add walnuts to the food processor and process into crumbles. Add to a mixing bowl.
- Add sliced mushrooms to the food processor and process until finely chopped. Add to the mixing bowl.
- When the tofu is pressed, mash it with a fork and add it to the mixing bowl.
- Add the lentils to the mixing bowl and toss everything together.
- Add olive oil, chopped onion, celery and red bell pepper to a pot and sauté until softened.
- Add crushed garlic, paprika, cumin, oregano, rosemary and cinnamon. Sauté for a minute to lightly toast the spices.
- Now add the walnut, mushroom, tofu and lentil mix and toss together with the vegetables and spices.
- Add tomato paste, marinara sauce and soy sauce and fry for about 8 minutes until you have cooked off any excess liquid and have a delicious soft mince texture.
- Add coconut sugar, black pepper and sea salt to taste.
Prepare the Bechamel Sauce:
- Add olive oil to a pot and heat it. Add the flour and fry it in the oil briefly. Add in all the soy milk at once and stir vigorously until well combined.
- Alternate between a wooden spoon and a whisk while heating to remove any lumps. It can tend to stick to the bottom of the pot so make sure you are scraping the bottom of the pot constantly and then whisking it in.
- Keep stirring and whisking until it reaches a rolling boil and then let it boil while you continue to stir until it thickens.
- When it's thickened, add black pepper and salt to taste.
Assemble the Moussaka:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Place half of the roasted eggplant along the bottom of a 9×13 oven-safe dish. Add all the vegan mince on top of the eggplant and smooth it down into a thick layer.
- Top the vegan mince with the remaining sliced eggplant. Add all of the bechamel sauce on top and smooth it down with the back of a spoon.
- Place into the oven to bake for 40 minutes switching to grill for the last 5 minutes so that it can brown on top.
- Let it cool for 10 minutes on the countertop before serving.
- Decorate with sprinkles of dried oregano, paprika, ground black pepper and sprigs of fresh rosemary.
Notes
- Marina sauce: You can use any marinara sauce that you like the taste of.
- Storing: Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for around 4-5 days.
- Freezing: It’s freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
I have veganised traditonal Greek Moussaka (without cumin, rosemary, bell pepper, paprika or celery). I make my own sauce, with garlic, onion, oregano, cinnamon, parsley, black pepper, olive oil and red wine and I usually use TVP or buy lentils for my ‘mince’. In the winter, I use a layer of potato slices on the bottom, then sauce, then egg plant, but in the summer, I use a layer of roasted (or fried) zucchini instead of potato as it makes the meal lighter (I also use a little grated vegan cheese and a little bechamel between the layers). I make my bechamel the same as you do, except I also add grated nutmeg and ‘set’ the sauce by using Orgran vegan egg replacer.
Sounds good! Thanks for sharing Kate.
Once again, your recipe blew us away! I agree with other reviewers that the Bechamel sauce is more than enough – I reserved some for the next recipe 🙂 I notice one person asked about tofu substitutions – I used both lentils AND TVP (textured vegetable protein) and the texture is just amazing, like ground lamb/beef. My partner doesn’t like eggplant, so I used yellow zucchini and potatoes – absolutely to die for! Thanks again Alison for another 5-star dish!!!
Thanks so much for sharing Judi! Soooo happy it was a success! 🙂
LOVED this recipe and will surely make it again. Cut the béchamel less than half as others have. A bit labour intensive but well worth it!
So glad you loved it Deborah! Thanks for sharing!
Got rave reviews from the family….it was a bit time consuming but worth it in the end.
Yay! Thanks so much Denise!
Made this recipe tonight. All the right spices, great texture, yummy. Used almond milk (unsweetened), and made 1/2 recipe of bechamel which was plenty.
Will definitely make again.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Judy!
Recipe sounds great coming from a vegan Greek that used to love the real deal moussaka the way my mama made it. Only thing is I do not eat soy so I can easily replace the soy milk but tofu seems to be a hard one since I imagine thats an important ingredient in any vegan meat substitute recipe. I will have to experiment with this new pumpkin seed tofu that has come out made only with pumpkin seeds but its nothing like tofu. Thanks for sharing! I also do not eat flours unless its Spelt, Chickpea or Almond/Coconut flour..do you think I could sub one of those probably garbanzo bean flour?
Thanks Joanna! Let us know how it goes with the pumpkin seed tofu! That sounds really interesting. I think spelt flour should work. Otherwise we have made our white sauce with a gluten-free all purpose blend and that does work great too.
Can I substitute the soy milk? If so, is there something else you’d recommend?
Sure, almond milk, coconut milk both work well. Most likely any non-dairy milk that heats well will work great.
Made this for the first time and loved it! It is quite involved, but definitely worth the effort. Family who ate it rated it extremely highly. Followed recipe to the letter except made half the white sauce and it was certainly enough. N8 cups (nearly 2000ml) seemed too much.
So glad you enjoyed it Glenn! Thanks for the awesome review!
This is SO TASTY!!!
I just finished making it for the first time, it’s got to be my new favourite comfort meal :’)
I followed the recipe almost exactly, just adding about 1/4 cup nutritional yeast to the bechamel sauce ????
And both the mince and sauce taste AMAZING on their own, I will be coming back to this recipe for lasagnas, pasta Bolognese and for a super creamy mac and cheese!
Thank you!!
Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review Lily!
Question… I want to make this but could veggie broth be substituted for some of the oil? Please advise, I have company coming this weekend and I’d love to serve this. THANK YOU!
Hi Lynn, yes sure you can experiment with using veg stock for some or even all of the oil. But I would recommend to experiment with it so that you’re not trying it out for the first time when you have guests coming. 🙂
Love moussaka- what can I sub for tofu?
Hmmm, you could try using extra mushrooms? I’m not sure though as I haven’t tried a version without tofu.
I too felt like it was too much sauce, I made half what was instructed and didn’t even finish that. I will make lasagna with the rest. But great sauce. It will be my go to.
Oh, I also added a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, as this is how my aunt did it and I love carbs!
Oh awesome! Sounds like a good addition!